Economic inequality is associated with preferences for smaller, immediate gains over larger, delayed ones. Such temporal discounting may feed into rising global inequality, yet it is unclear whether it is a function of choice preferences or norms, or rather the absence of sufficient resources for immediate needs. It is also not clear whether these reflect true differences in choice patterns between income groups. We tested temporal discounting and five intertemporal choice anomalies using local currencies and value standards in 61 countries (N = 13,629). Across a diverse sample, we found consistent, robust rates of choice anomalies. Lower-income groups were not significantly different, but economic inequality and broader financial circumstances were clearly correlated with population choice patterns.
Social-psychological interventions have raised the learning and performance of students in rigorous efficacy trials. Yet, after they are distributed “in the wild” for students to self-administer, there has been little research following up on their translational effectiveness. We used cutting-edge educational technology to tailor, scale up, and track a previously-validated Strategic Resource Use intervention among 12,065 college students in 14 STEM and Economics classes. Students who self-administered this “Exam Playbook” benefitted by an average of 2.17 percentage points (i.e., a standardized effect size of 0.18), compared to non-users. This effect size was 1.65 percentage points when controlling for college entrance exam scores and 1.75 [−1.88] for adding [dropping] the Exam Playbook in stratified matching analyses. Average benefits differed in magnitude by the conduciveness of the class climate (including peer norms and incentives), gender, first-generation status, as well as how often and how early they used the intervention. These findings on how, when, and who naturally adopts these resources address a need to improve prediction, translation, and scalability of social-psychological intervention benefits.
Persistence is the sustained effort toward a goal, and leaving a challenge is often perceived as lacking in persistence. Yet sometimes, trading off immediate persistence toward a goal by switching to another means to attain the goal can also pay off in the longer run. We tested how an important and prevalent contextual cue—having the option to switch problem under difficulty—can involve such a persistence trade-off. Across four studies (total N = 1,629), having (vs. not having) the option to switch reduced people's persistence on the immediate challenging problem at hand, but increased the number of problems that they attempted and the total duration that they spent working on the overall task (Experiments 1, 2, and 3). Examining participants' motivations, those who chose to switch reported wanting to try more similar problems (Study 4a), and to attempt easier problems (Study 4b) that might better match their aptitude. Our findings highlight the role of having—and using—the option to switch as an important way to navigate the immediate challenge while still persisting toward the larger superordinate goal.
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